Jojo Moyes – After You

I had built this book up so much after how much I loved Me Before You, but sadly, I have to say it disappointed me.

It’s taken me almost a month to read it, which is unusual and a sign of how I wasn’t completely absorbed. I just couldn’t get into the first half of the book at all, it seemed very slow and I didn’t feel the same connection to Louisa as I felt when reading Me Before You. The second half of the book did improve dramatically and I really got into it, but I just couldn’t say I loved the book after such a disappointing start.

Obviously as this is a sequel, the review will contain spoilers to Me Before You, so if you haven’t read that yet, I probably wouldn’t read on from here!

We start the book after we left off, Louisa still recovering from Will’s death, trying to get to grips with life without him and failing quite miserably. Her lowest point comes when she’s completely drunk and falls off the roof of her flat, seriously injuring herself and forcing her to temporarily move back with her parents.

Everyone is concerned for her, but she soon has more worries of her own when a teenage girl turns up at her door claiming to be Will’s daughter. Desperate for a connection to Will, Louisa finds herself completely involved in the life of this complete stranger, putting her life on hold in an attempt to hold on to a part of Will.

During all this, Louisa finds herself a new love interest, which quite frankly was one of the most interesting parts of the story and the reason that the book picked up further along.

But I kinda feel that the ending wasn’t entirely as I would have expected or wanted, although it did make me cry, so it can’t have been all that bad. It does seem like it may have been deliberately left open as it was to leave the author open to another sequel. I just hope if she decides to do it, it’s a bit more gripping like Me Before You.